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Talk:Mod-Shattered Pixel Dungeon/@comment-25634745-20141107022358
Things I'd like to see: 1 - Easier container interface access There should be an '"open" button for all containers (seed pouch, etc.) so that you don't have to constantly switch which container is in the "quickslot" and thus can open to a container's content through the main inventory window instead. 2 - Better movement along diagonals The character (and monsters) should move diagonally only if there is no forbidden square in the 2x2 squares enclosing each "step". In other words: no "cutting" of corners ! This would make traps and monsters in corridors or in front of doors much more serious propositions. 3 - Avoid "Big Number Syndrome" I find it stupid how all gold prices are needlessly inflated by about an order or magnitude and yet we often find only 1 gold meaning a totally NEGLIGIBLE find, yet the icon clearly always show 3 gold pieces. Drop ALL prices at least by a factor of 10 (buying and selling). Round any fractions. Who cares if you found 76 or 77 gold, in the long run you find so much gold loot it would just average the same. Big numbers are harder to read in the quick intefdace AND have less impact. Seeing 7 or 8 gold found when a store potion costs 30 to buy, actually feels like a true difference, while 76 or 77 is just some unimportant big number "rolling by the player's eyes" and players don't bother to count much when items cost 300 to buy in the stores. Add a single gold piece icon and also a 2 gold pieces icon. The "3 gold pice" icon would be for anything that is over 2 gold, and the gold amounts are simply rolled when the icon is first shown on the level map to determine which icon to use. Let me make my point by the absurd opposite extreme: if all prices were say multiplied by 1 million, you would not find 76 gold: you'd find instead things like 76 135 248 gold ! All store prices also would be about 1 million times bigger too so it remains "equal". So it would all even out to be the same, right ? Mechanics-wise, nearly yes (the 1 gold treasures would just feel even more ridiculously negligible - almost an insult to a player's intelligence). But ergonomically speaking, anybody with common sense would agree that simply READING their gold would be "unwieldy": weighting the interface too heavyly for absolutely zero good reason. The human brain is made for very quickly reading VERY small numbers (ideally numbers from 1 to 4!). So a good game will balance things internally with say floating points, or converting a value like 5.4 into 40% of getting a 5 value and 60% of getting a 6 value. However the programmer wants ! But the game would always try to display only SMALL numbers for the player's benefit. in fact even hit points are already at the upper limit of what is "ergonomical" - starting with only 5 hit point with +1 hit point per level would work out the SAME as starting at 20 hit points with +5 hit points per level. However, things like natural healing and dew drops wouldn't work as well if the granularity was any smaller than in PD. Well IMHO dew drops feel quite negligible in their overall game effect so they could stay the same and all other HP / damage values dropped by 2 (and healing half as fast). but that can be debatable. But for gold, there is no such "reason" to have a higher granularity, apart from the fact that it seems like americans like big numbers with lots of zeroes behind. But most worldwide award-winning boargames however balance things to use tiniest numbers as possible instead. Also, it would make finding a single gold coin less of a ridiculous thing. And things like "But using the troll pick to harvest all gold ore from the walls at 1 gold apiece, that would give way too much gold !" can easily be adressed in LOTS of ways. Putting less ore on the walls. Making the pick break after 20+(1d10) pick uses. Or when selling extra gold ore, the selling price is only a fraction of the amount of ores sold, let's say 1/5 rounded down, etc. 4 - A smoother overall progression The difference in protective value of each armor Tier (and to an extent weapons damage Tier) is so incredibly huge that anything UNDER Tier IV is basically "garbage" and even Tier IV is "almost garbage". Unless you have that "perfect" run and find plate mail, or avoid melee ENTIRELY, one might just as well abandon the game. With crappy armor even a SINGLE hit from a boss or powerful monster WILL kill you. Everything I faced Goo with cloth armor, that spelled my one-hit-death. The power gap from each Tier should be a lot less "steep". Currently it feels as if each Tier is like 4 Scrolls of Upgrade or something, and more than HALVES the damage. a x2 increase of "power" per tier is a HUGE improvement, almost making it a "do or die" requirement to have the best and ONLY the best to have a chance to win. The entire thing should be rebalanced so that each Tier is a FLAT bonus, not a "per scroll of upgrade" bonus. Say, Plate Armor +(N) would equal exactly Scale Armor +(N+2) and Chain Armor +(N+4) and Leather Armor +(N+6) and Cloth Armor +(N+8) and No Armor +(N+10) (not that you can enchant your body anyway but you get the idea). Finding a weapon say 1 Tier above what you have should definitely help, but not be a HUMONGOUS step in power increase either. This would need a huge rebalancing work, though. 5 - No automatic dew wastage The player should always pick up dew ONLY if there is space in his dew bottle. Otherwise, the dew just stays there. A player could still drink the few drop directly IF he is already standing atop the dew and clicks on it and is hurt. Otherwise, this is just frustrating. 6 - No more automatic pickup while there are monsters nearby How many times I try to manoeuver to a monster but because there is an item on the ground instead iof just moving 1 square, I move 1 square AND try to pickup the item and thus get attacked first ? When there are active "awake" monsters around within say 3 squares, ythe player should NOt auto-pickup stuff: you should have to stand on the item and select your square a second time (or select the item with the blue button on the right) to accept "being hit while you pick the item up". Battle should always take priirity and this "feature" is just plain annoying NOT challenging in any way. 7 - Don't force player to take lots of notes Items outside fog of war should still be visible a la "last time you were there, that room contained such and such". This is a roguelike game, not a memory game ! 8 - Easier Movement interface When the player is moving, he should not stop every time he takes 1 damage from hunger EXCEPT if that is his last hit point. Otherwise this is just annoying as you get constantly stopped trying to go ANYWHERE. Also, the "continue movement" button should still remember the "programmed far away location" (instead of diapparing) when you are making a new movement let's say of only 3 squares or less. Currently, the faraway destination just '"disappears" which is annoying because often you move only a couple squares to deal with a monster along the way. The challenge of a reoguelike is in making intelligent decision (plus luck), not fighting with the interface. 9 - Prevent game-ruining events Lost a really good game once because I inadvertently fumbled on the tiny screen and sold my plate mail +7 instead of the item next to it. Dexterity gaffes should NOT be the challenge. When the player is trying to sell or destroy something that has been buffed in any way (scrolls of upgrade, well of transmutation, reforging, arcane stylus, etc.) then the interface should show an "Are you sure you want to sell this?" Yes/No popup window. Still, Shattered PD is way better than the original IMHO. :-) Thanks !